Carlito's Workshop 2 --Photogenic House with an Outstanding Garden :)

When we went to Carlito's, we were hesitant to go in because we are literally walk-ins because we did not call in advance for reservations but the brochure said it is open on Saturdays. When we arrived, the place looks quiet with only one red pickup car parked in front of the house. Now, the main reason we went here is to have coffee and this is right after the rambutan festival in Tiaong.
The picture above shows the facade of the main house and the back of this nice house.

It was really intimidating because the house is very beautiful. The leftmost picture is the view of the well manicured lawn from the main door of the house. Upon entering the house, you are greeted by the picture in the middle where there is a fountain statue behind a glass encarving. We were invited to the living room where there are alot of art pieces as well including a patis tesoro doll (see right most photo above). At this point, Carlito met us and we felt right at home and we felt like a guest of a long time friend.

At the back of the main house is a small structure that has dining tables featuring Carlito's work. At this point, Carlito was explaining to us what he is doing, his work, and the story behind Carlito's workshop. Apparently, he is a very good friend of Patis Tesoro and she asked him to open up his very nice house for people visiting San Pablo. Viaje del Sol, was a very nice concept where the insight was people who would love to eat at Kusina Salud needed to have other site seeing places in the area. Thus, Carlito was convinced, and he opened up his nice home.

Having said this, Carlito's workshop is still not a full pledge coffee house (yet) since viaje del sol is just 6 months old. I actually like going to these places when they are young when there are not alot of people. In this particular case when we visited, we were the ONLY people and we were entertained very well :) Carlito lives with his wife and daughter but they were out in San Pablo city when we arrived. After looking at the magnificent (first time we've seen such) steel brass artwork, we finally tasted the coffee that we came for and much more in his workshop place.

The structure above is his workshop where he creates his masterpieces. This is where we spent our afternoon coffee time --- Carlito's Workshop ala Starbucks with a Filipino touch.